Bidets have long been known as bath room appliances, separate from the toilet, but likewise connected to a source of running water and to a drain. Somewhat recently, the functions of toilet and bidet have been combined into a single appliance. Many people enjoy these integrated units in their homes or retrofit their existing toilet by adding a “bidet seat” that includes water spray means. The bidet seat is connected to the inlet pipe of the existing toilet as a source of pressurized fresh water and waste water is discharged through the toilet.
One reason for using bidet toilets is to avoid or minimize use of toilet paper, especially if the toilet discharges to a private septic system, to a municipal sewage treatment system of low efficiency, or even directly into a body of water. People of quite a few cultures are unused to, or even disgusted by, toilet paper or are required by religious rules to wash with water after elimination. Also, some people are not able to use toilet paper effectively due to lack of dexterity, strength, or flexibility in their hands or arms and find that washing is easier for them.
People with a strong aversion to toilet paper, or who cannot use toilet paper effectively and without pain, feel the lack of their personal bidet keenly when they must use other facilities such as hotel, restaurant, or public restrooms. Some attempts have been made to provide portable washing while seated on a toilet, such as adapting hand-held pressure sprayers, such as are used for insecticide application, for personal use. Such pressure sprayers are typically powered by hand pumping of a piston-type pump or by electricity, such as from an internal battery.
Some people with reduced use of their hands also have reduced strength in their legs and find it easier to sit down on and rise from a toilet with a higher seat than is typical in public restrooms. A portable sprayer does not help persons with mobility problems sit or arise safely from toilets that are too low for them.
There is a need for a device that can address both problems: needing to wash instead of (or in addition to) wiping with toilet paper and needing assistance to sit down or arise from a toilet seat. Such a device should be lightweight yet strong and stable, easy to operate and clean, reliable, and self-contained so as not to depend upon connection to running water or electricity.